Whether it was OT hero Jack Hughes proving he can be a big-game star or goalie Connor Hellebuyck showing that he can win when the stakes are the highest or even J.T. Miller proving that he is a penalty-killing stud — not a dressing room pariah — the Olympics helped erase a lot of narratives.
MILAN, Italy - Call them the Redemption Games.
Whether it was OT hero Jack Hughes proving he can be a big-game star (when healthy) or goalie Connor Hellebuyck showing that he can win when the stakes are the highest or even J.T. Miller proving that he is a penalty-killing stud — not a dressing room pariah — these Olympics helped erase a lot of narratives for some of the NHL's most-criticized players.
Chief among them was American center Auston Matthews, whose captaincy had come under attack earlier in the tournament following shaky wins against Latvia and Denmark, only to be proclaimed "a winner" by his teammates following a 2-1 overtime win in the gold-medal final.
“I mean, I haven't been in a big kind of game like this. This is the Olympics. It's the biggest stage in the world, and we’re playing Canada," he said, while clutching a bottle of beer, with a gold medal hanging around his neck and a pair of champagne goggles propped up on his head.
When asked if this win could also help change his narrative in the NHL, where Matthews has been unable to lift the Toronto Maple Leafs to glory — much less, even past the second round of the playoffs in his past nine years — the 28-year-old rolled his eyes.
"I'm trying to live in the moment, man. C'mon," he said.
"It doesn't matter what anyone says now," interrupted Jack Hughes. "Auston Matthews is a winner. Auston Matthews is an Olympic gold medallist. He's a winner."
"Yeah, that's what the media in Toronto should be talking about," added Quinn Hughes. "Auston Matthews led us to a championship."
Matthews smiled.
"I have nothing else to say," he said.
Indeed, the way that Matthews led in this tournament was typical of his leadership. He wasn't one of the Tkachuk brothers, flying around the ice delivering big hit and chirping the opposition every chance he could. And he wasn't Jack Hughes, dancing around the defense and showing off his skill.
No, Matthews' leadership was more subtle, especially if you went looking for it on the scoresheet.
Though he finished with three goals and seven points in six games — second-most among U.S. players — Matthews' biggest contributions often came without the puck on his stick. For most of the tournament, he was used in a shutdown role, matching up against the best players on the other team.
In the final against Canada, that meant seeing a lot of Olympics leading scorer and MVP Connor McDavid, who managed just two shots in against the U.S., but for the first time all tournament failed to record a single point.
"I think everybody knows how big of a game it is," said Matthews, who picked up an assist on Matt Boldy's goal in the first period. "It's the gold-medal game, you're playing against Canada. But I don't think the approach is really much different than — you're just trying to treat it like a regular game. You're not trying to do anything abnormal or anything you necessarily wouldn't do typically.
"Obviously, the focus and the discipline and everything going into it is heightened, because it is the gold-medal game. But for us, I think, the energy in the room was great. Just go out there and have fun and everybody just has to do their job. You don't have to go and do anything out of the normal, out of your zone. Just do your job and the rest of it will take care of itself."
That seemed to be the mantra, not just for Matthews, but for a lot of the American players.
Everyone on the team had a role. For Miller, whose inclusion raised eyebrows when he and New York Rangers teammate Vincent Trochek were chosen ahead of better offensive players like Jason Robertson and Cole Caufield, his biggest impact came on the penalty kill, which performed at a miraculous 100 percent-rate all tournament.
"Yeah, we heard all the talk, that we shouldn’t be here," said Trochek. "We were able to come here and we had a job to do, and it was to be good penalty kill guys, faceoff guys, character guys. We took that role and we ran with it.”
Hughes was another who understood why he was on the team, but more importantly what was at stake when he took a costly high-sticking penalty in the third period — and what could be achieved when he stepped out on ice in overtime.
"I pictured myself on Barstool [Sports] being, like, the guy that America hates because Canada scores on the power play," he said. "I was like, 'Oh my God, here it is.' "
Instead, a player who has earned a reputation for being injury-prone showed the world what he is capable of, even while missing a couple of teeth from an earlier high stick against him.
"There's a bunch of idiots out there … saying this and that. They don't know what it's like to get surgery for six months, not really feel good for 10 months, and do that back to back," said Hughes' brother, Quinn. "For him to just persevere and keep believing and just keep going no matter what happens, he's a special guy, special player."
The same can be said of Hellebuyck, who despite winning the Hart and Vezina Trophies last year was finally able to do what he failed to do at last year's 4 Nations Face-Off and in so many playoff rounds with the Winnipeg Jets: win the big game.
"We are gonna be talking about this performance for generations. It was an all-time performance from a superstar at his position," said Matthew Tkachuk. "It's going to go down as one of the best performances of all time. It has to. Right up there with (1980 U.S. gold medallist) Jimmy Craig, all the great United States goaltenders, NHL, whatever type of hockey goaltender performance you want to talk about, that's right up there.
"Without him, we don't win."
For Hellebuyck, Hughes, Matthews and so many more on Team USA, a new narrative that they can be proud of.